“When any one of you gets up in the morning in the state of fasting, he should neither use obscene language nor do any act of ignorance. And if anyone slanders him or quarrels with him, he should say: I am fasting, I am fasting.” [Hadith from Sahih Muslim]
“When any one of you gets up in the morning in the state of fasting, he should neither use obscene language nor do any act of ignorance. And if anyone slanders him or quarrels with him, he should say: I am fasting, I am fasting.” [Hadith from Sahih Muslim]
Ramadan has just begun! It is the month of fasting, the month of the Qur’an, the month of forgiveness and the month of taqwa.
This beautiful and blessed month can also be a very intense month. Now I know we live in a culture where “life hacks” are encouraged – trying to cut corners, save time and effort in our busy lives etc. And though that is not the attitude we want to take with our spiritual life and growth, I’d like to think that there are ways that we can maximise our rewards this Ramadan!
We’re not cutting corners or taking the easy way out, but we are trying to be very intentional and to stretch our rewards inshaAllah.
1. Qur’an
“The month of Ramadan [is that] in which was revealed the Qur’an, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion.” (Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:185)
Building a relationship with anyone or anything starts small. It’s going to be the same with the Qur’an. Don’t make lofty goals of completing reciting the whole Qur’an this Ramadan if you’ve only just started learning the letters. (Don’t get me wrong, make grand intentions of course but with our spirituality, focus more on quality rather than quantity.)
It was narrated by Sayyidatina Aisha (RA) that:
Whoever recites a letter from Allah’s Book, then he receives the reward from it, and the reward of ten the like of it. I do not say that Alif Lam Mim is a letter, but Alif is a letter, Lam is a letter and Mim is a letter.”
(Sunan At-Tirmizi)
Use that to motivate you and remember that every good deed done in Ramadan has their rewards multiplied by our generous Lord!
A cool hack for the Qur’an in Ramadan is finding a Qur’an Buddy or a Qur’an reading circle. One, it helps to keep you accountable. Second, not only will you get the reward of reciting the Qur’an, you will get the reward of listening to the Qur’an! Rewards = maximised!
2. Prayer
Of course, the tarawih prayers are a Ramadan special. We don’t have it outside of Ramadan and the merits sound amazing too:
“Whoever prays during the night of Ramadan with īmān (faith) and in hopes of rewards (from Allah), his past sins will be forgiven for him.” (Narrated by Imam Al-Bukhārī & Muslim)
But every other Ramadan article will tell you to pray the tarawih. The hack for prayer this Ramadan is 2 rakaah of Qiyam al-layl before Fajr. Since we will already be awake for suhoor, make sure you don’t miss just 2 cycles of prayer of Qiyam al-layl or tahajjud prayer.
Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said:
Keep up qiyam al-layl. It was the way of the virtuous who came before you, it draws you nearer to your Lord, atones for your sins, forbids you from evil and protects the body from sickness.”
(Tirmidhi)
It has also been said that the tahajjud prayer is a keystone habit. Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything. Dr Anse Tamara Gray mentions in the article that:
“Tahajjud is the habit that influences the rest of our day and how we focus our lives. If you are waking up for tahajjud, your chances of missing fajr are reduced, and if you have prayed tahajjud and fajr, you will push yourself to pray the other daily prayers in order to preserve the beauty of that day.”
3. Charity
Sayyidina Ibn Abbas narrated:
The Prophet (ﷺ) was the most generous of all the people, and he used to become more generous in Ramadan when Gabriel met him. (Sahih Bukhari)
Giving sadaqah in Ramadan is a multi-level reward scheme. Outside of Ramadan, Allah already says it is rewarded 700 times:
The parable of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is that of a grain, out of which grow seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains.”
[Surah al-Baqarah: 261]
Imagine that reward being multiplied in Ramadan! LaunchGood has made it so easy to give sadaqah every single day of Ramadan through the Ramadan Challenge.
You only need to sign up once, and every day, your pledged amount will go towards different verified causes from around the world! You can also add your favourite charities or causes to your Giving List if you want to get more involved.
This cool hack ensures that your reward for charity-giving is ongoing even if you forgot to donate that day; LaunchGood does it for you!
4. Fasting
I don’t have a hack for you to cut down your hours of fasting or have a trick to not feel hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. But the fasting hack is to elevate the quality of your fast!
It is to make sure that not only is your stomach fasting, but so are your ears, eyes, tongue, and mind from hearing, seeing, speaking, and thinking bad things!
When any one of you gets up in the morning in the state of fasting, he should neither use obscene language nor do any act of ignorance. And if anyone slanders him or quarrels with him, he should say: I am fasting, I am fasting.”
[Hadith from Sahih Muslim]
Simple tweaks you can make this Ramadan to protect your fast:
1. Creating a Spotify or YouTube playlist just for Ramadan ahead of the month. This ensures that there is no bad language in what you are listening to. Additionally, you can include more Qur’an recitations in there, or podcasts or lectures of beneficial content.
2. Some people take a whole social media fast in Ramadan. But if that sounds like it’s intense, I’ve heard some people create a new Instagram account just for Ramadan and only follow certain accounts so they don’t see content from brands and other content creators that may not contribute to the best Ramadan.
5. Zakat
“Whoever pays the zakat on his wealth will have its evil removed from him” (Ibn Khuzaimah and at-Tabarani)
This aspect of the religion is somehow shrouded in complicated calculations and needless stress. It doesn’t have to be! Zakat is a beautiful divine economic tool that could really change the lives of millions if done right.
On launchgood.com/Zakat, you will find hundreds of global and local Zakat causes, each of them verified for Zakat eligibility by their compliance team and Zakat experts and scholars.
The all new conversational calculator takes you step by step through the calculation process. Even better, no more spreadsheets! Keep track of your annual Zakat giving, edit your calculation and add offline Zakat donations from the dashboard. A Zakat hack? Yes please!
We hope these 5 hacks will help you maximise your rewards and give you the best Ramadan ever!
